Shadowing Practice: The ONLY IELTS Writing Task 2 Strategy You Need - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

621 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

You've just found the only IELTS Writing Task 2 strategy you'll ever need.

I'll show you exactly how one of our students jumped from band 6 .5 to band 8 using just one simple strategy.

This will help you succeed and save you huge amounts of time because you won't have to memorize many different strategies.

And this isn't just another IELTS tips video.

I'm going to show you something unique, real before and after essays from my real student.

I'll show you exactly why she got 6 .5 in her essay

and then you'll watch as we transform it into a band -aid essay using this simple strategy.

Every change, every improvement explained step by step

and by the end of this video

you'll learn the same system thousands of our students have used to get a band 7, 8 and even 9 in their IELTS writing test.

And at the end of this video I'm going to give you two very special bonuses.

Bonus number one is something

that you guys have been asking us for years to put all the writing structures into one PDF document.

Not only have we done that, but we've also added flowcharts and checklists, everything you need to structure any essay.

And bonus number two, we are going to give you a chance to get one -on -one feedback on your essays from me personally.

And I will also create a personalized study plan so you know exactly what to study before your test.

But before all that, let's jump into it.

So three stages to IELTS writing and stage one is the planning and thinking stage.

Look at that in more detail about how planning is an investment of your time, not a waste of your time.

Then stage two, the writing stage, obviously, and stage three, checking.

So let's get straight into the thinking stage.

The first thing that she said was, I just don't have time.

You know, I really struggled to get an essay done in the 40 minutes allowed.

How am I going to have time for planning?

So we changed our mindset a little bit from planning is

a waste of time to planning is actually an investment of your time.

Because the more you plan, you're actually freeing up a lot of time because instead of writing

and then thinking and then writing and thinking and then getting lost in the essay and having to go back and panicking,

you do all of your thinking in the thinking stage and then you do all of your writing in the writing stage.

The analogy I always use is if you were going on holiday, of course you're going to plan the hotel you're going to

and book your flights and get a map of the city and all of those things to save you time.

So think about the planning stage as that,

you know, planning everything out to save you a lot of time and make everything much easier for yourself.

So your first job is to think about what the question is actually asking you to do.

Looking at her essay, it was very obvious that she immediately just started writing and didn't really think about the question.

And there was a major mistake in it and we're going to show you that later on.

Just remind you about the question so I'll have a read of this.

So instead of immediately reading this as quickly as possible

which she did I told her just to calm down put the pen on the table

and just think about the question first.

You might think this is really really obvious

but I'll show you the major mistake that she made later on

that will hopefully convince you that this is a worthwhile use of your time.

What she also did was she wrote about the general topic, but didn't really focus on the specifics of the question.

So what we taught her first was take a minute or two just to read the question and think about it,

but then divide it into the general topic.

So the general topic is sleep, but the specific topic, what they really are talking about is comparing sleep now,

today, and in the past and that will help you really hone in on the correct answer and writing a very clear,

coherent, cohesive essay if you split it up between the general topic and the specific topic.

And to do that, to get better at that, just look at lots of questions and get five,

six, seven, eight questions and have a look at them

and try and divide them into the general topic

and the specific topics and it will start to dawn on you how important that is because a lot of students,

what they do is they just write generally about everything that they see rather than answering the specific question.

But that's just the first stage.

The second stage of the thinking part of doing your essay is what do they actually want you to do?

Again, this might sound really obvious and you're like, oh, I know what they want me to do.

I've read it.

Well, you'll see, and most students actually get this question completely wrong.

So number one, why is this?

So what do you think is the reason behind this?

Why is this?

Keep it very simple.

And secondly, what effects does this have on them?

And it's really important that you understand that it's effects.

Most people, when they do this question, And like you'll see later on with this student, what they write about are the causes.

It doesn't ask you about the causes of it.

It asks you about the effects of it.

So if you talk about the causes, like this student did, and like most students who do this, then you're wrong.

But if you write about the effects, you're correct.

So again, taking that time, you'll see that it is an investment of your time.

You know the specific thing you're supposed to be writing about and the specific things they want you to do.

And it just makes everything much, much, much, much easier.

And then we can head on to the next stage of the thinking part, which is idea generation.

Many, many times a day, we'll get emails from students saying, I really, really struggle with idea generation.

I have no idea what to do.

So the first question we asked her when she told us that she had this problem is, what did you do in the real test?

How did you generate ideas?

Because she was one of those people that was just like, I'm really bad at thinking of ideas.

I was like, okay, you're probably not bad at thinking of ideas.

You're probably just using the wrong technique or going about it the wrong way.

And her answer was she started writing and then she started brainstorming.

I said, okay, two major problems there.

First, you cannot write and then brainstorm at the same time.

It's impossible to do that if you think about it.

You can't be writing your essay and brainstorming at the same time but many, many students do, and this student did that as well.

And the result of that is normally having multiple main ideas in each paragraph.

Like a lot of students like this student will have five

or six main ideas in their main body paragraphs and no explanations really, no examples, they're not developing their main ideas.

And this is mentioned in the official marking criteria.

You need to develop your main ideas.

And if you don't do that, then you're not satisfying that marking criteria.

So even just this stage of idea generation can be tweaked to allow you to satisfy the marking criteria

and think of ideas quickly and effectively.

Also, brainstorming is not the best way to think of ideas.

It's a great way to think of ideas

if you're trying to think of just random ideas

and just free thinking but you don't have time really to do

that and brainstorming normally generates just lots and lots of random irrelevant ideas and it takes a lot of time.

100

Instead with this question what you could do is just ask yourself direct questions

101

and think about what is the most obvious answer?

102

What is the most obvious main idea?

103

If I asked a hundred people this question what would they say?

104

so instead of brainstorming

105

you could just think why is this why do people sleep less than they do in the past

106

they work more that's one very very very obvious idea

107

that is easy for you to think about you can do it quickly

108

and it's also easy for the examiner to recognize that idea

109

and for you to develop that idea what effects does it have on them what happens

110

if you don't sleep fatigue and

111

and this person who we're working with was a doctor

112

and they were trying to think of all these crazy ideas

113

and and effects and it's just like what what happens

114

when you don't sleep you feel tired why don't you use

115

that oh it's too simple there's nothing in the marking criteria

116

that says your ideas need to be sophisticated there's nothing in the marking criteria

117

which says your ideas need to be high level

118

or you know it's not an intelligence test it's not a knowledge test it is just a writing test

119

and you can satisfy the marking criteria by thinking of the most obvious answer that's relevant

120

and specific answers the question now that you've got two answers

121

and two ideas you can use structure planning

122

so structure planning there's no magic structure there's no structure

123

that you can use that is going to guarantee

124

that you get a high score there are lots of structures

125

that are that are good and there are lots of structures

126

that are not so good a structure just helps you think helps you plan

127

and helps you write your essay they are very very helpful to organize your ideas

128

and then put those ideas onto paper

129

so we gave her just a very basic structure to help

130

her with this introduction is you're going to introduce the topic you're going to paraphrase the question by doing that

131

answer both questions

132

so tell the examiner exactly what's coming up in the rest of the essay to help them

133

because your position needs to be clear throughout the essay

134

that's what it says in the marking criteria you also need to write a coherent

135

and cohesive essay again that's what it says in the marking criteria

136

so teaching them just basic principles that will help them satisfy the marking criteria

137

and keep the examiners happy main body one

138

so it's your you've two questions so your first answer your explanation

139

and your example doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

140

Main body two, the second answer, explanation, an example, and then conclusion is just a summary of answer to both questions.

141

She looked at this and started arguing with me and said, well, my other teacher says to do it a different way.

142

And another IELTS expert says to do it another way.

143

And my book says it as like, so what are you trying to achieve here?

144

Are you just, do you just want an argument?

145

Do you want to just debate which structure is better? or would you rather just follow one way,

146

all of them are probably going to help you and that is going to help you actually write a decent answer.

147

So it took a couple of days for her to come around,

148

but one of the key principles that she understood was there are many correct ways of doing things, and especially when it comes to structures.

149

But if you try and do four different things, you're going to write a very confusing essay.

150

So this is what we did we got her to take her ideas

151

and just put them into the structure

152

so she's going to paraphrase the question answer both questions

153

so work more and fatigue main body one work more then an explanation about why

154

that is and then an example a recent study plus something to support our main idea

155

and we'll look at what she said in a second

156

when we look at her essay main body two fatigue less sleep means the body

157

and mind of less time to recover sleep rejuvenates our body

158

and mind very very obvious and then she had a great example

159

that she came up with herself and from a basketball team

160

that she read and book because she read a study

161

and she's going to use that

162

and you'll see how good this was compared to what she did in the real test

163

now I have something very special for you for years students

164

have been asking us to take all of the task to structures and to put them into one document.

165

We not only did that, but we also added a few more things.

166

We wanted to help you out as much as possible.

167

So we've added in flow charts so that you can take the structures

168

and then go through the flow chart and it will tell you exactly what to do step by step.

169

And then at the end, once you have done your essay, you can use these checklists.

170

So we've added all these checklists and you can simply ask yourself these questions

171

and you can then check that you've done everything properly.

172

If you want all of that, all you have to do is just go below to the description

173

and click on this link and you can download the PDF ebook instantly.

174

This is something that we normally only share with our paying VIP students so we might not keep this for very long.

175

So get it before we remove it from the videos.

176

So let's look at some key principles from the thinking stage

177

and you can use these these principles too to help you write your essays.

178

So So number one, take the time to understand the question and what it is asking you to do.

179

If you don't do that, you don't understand the question, you won't be able to answer it.

180

Number two, planning is an investment of your time, not a waste.

181

Number three, think of the most obvious ideas.

182

They are obvious to the examiner and easy for you to develop.

183

There are no extra marks for good ideas.

184

There are no extra marks for sophisticated ideas.

185

Just use ideas that are easy to use and easy to understand.

186

Use a proven structure to help you organize your ideas.

187

Just make sure that it is a reliable structure and it actually works and don't try and memorize like five different structures.

188

Do most of your thinking before you start writing.

189

It's very difficult to think and write at the same time and help yourself and help the reader.

190

So help yourself write a good essay

191

and help the reader understand what you have done and understand that you have the ability to write a good essay.

192

These five principles just help you and they help the reader

193

and if you do those things then you're well on your way to writing a very very effective essay.

194

So let's have a look at her first introduction where she didn't follow any of these principles

195

and let's have a look at what she did.

196

Nowadays due to busy lifestyle it is common phenomena for people to slumber less.

197

This essay will discuss both views and finish with a reasonable opinion.

198

So I said to her, what are you doing here?

199

What are you doing in that first sentence?

200

And she had no answer.

201

And I said, what are you doing in that second sentence?

202

And she had no answer.

203

I said, well, if you don't know why you wrote those sentences, if you don't know the purpose of those sentences,

204

do you think that the person reading it is going to really follow it or understand it?

205

And I kept pushing her and pushing her, why did you do this?

206

And she said, I looked at other essays

207

and most of them started with nowadays and they talked about busy lifestyle

208

and I also looked at some YouTube videos that told me

209

that if I used the words phenomenon

210

and you know high level vocabulary like this then I was going to get a really high score.

211

I also looked at some blog posts

212

and they started their essays with this essay will discuss both views

213

and finish with a reasonable opinion and my answer to that was this is not a memorization test

214

This is a writing test.

215

You're not trying to demonstrate to the examiner that you watched some YouTube videos and memorized some vocabulary.

216

You're not trying to demonstrate to the examiner that you read a few blog posts and memorized how they write an introduction.

217

You need to demonstrate that you know how to write an introduction.

218

It's pretty obvious.

219

What is the purpose of an introduction?

220

Why do we write an introduction?

221

We write an introduction to introduce the reader to what the topic is

222

and introduce the reader to what is going to be in the rest of the essay.

223

Those are the purposes of an introduction.

224

And if you don't do those things, then you've just wasted your time.

225

And more importantly, you've wasted the reader's time

226

because the introduction is just there to help the reader understand what is coming up in the essay.

227

So we applied those principles and let's have a look at our new introduction.

228

So the first thing we got her to do was look at the question when you're writing your introduction.

229

If you don't look at the question when you're writing your introduction, you're not going to write a good introduction.

230

Pretty simple.

231

Again, all of these things seem really obvious, but you would not believe the number of students who we actually teach this to who say,

232

yeah, that's really obvious, and then don't do it.

233

All right, learn how to walk before you can run.

234

Do the basic principles, the fundamentals, before you start thinking about anything fancy because you're not being judged on what the fancy things you can do.

235

You're being judged on the fundamentals.

236

People sleep fewer hours than they did many years ago.

237

This is because we tend to work longer hours compared to the past and this results in fatigue.

238

So let's analyze this a little bit.

239

People sleep fewer hours than they did many years ago.

240

Paraphrasing the question, introducing the topic.

241

This is because we tend to work longer hours compared to the past answer one

242

and this results in fatigue answer two

243

and this is not the most perfect introduction in the world

244

there's mistakes in it you know there's mistakes in the rest of our essay

245

but it is way way way better than nowadays due to busy lifestyle

246

it is common phenomenon for people to slumber less just a hundred times better

247

so let's have a look and think about what the examiner would be thinking when they are looking at this introduction.

248

So the first question they're going to ask themselves is, have they understood the question?

249

And by looking at this, yes, they have.

250

Do they know how to paraphrase?

251

Yes, they do.

252

Is their grammar and vocabulary appropriate and accurate?

253

For the most part, yes, it is.

254

Do they know how to write an introduction?

255

Yes, they do.

256

All the essential elements are there.

257

Does the introduction make the rest of the essay clear and easy to understand?

258

Absolutely.

259

If I gave you this on a piece of paper and said, what is this essay about?

260

And what is the rest of the essay going to discuss?

261

What is it going to be about?

262

You would know exactly what is going to happen.

263

So key principles again, demonstrate ability, not memorization.

264

Keep it simple.

265

Paraphrasing is a skill you must master.

266

Many of you are thinking now, how do I learn how to paraphrase?

267

Get lots of questions and paraphrase them and get feedback on them.

268

Help the reader understand what your essay is about by clearly telling them and help yourself and help the reader.

269

Well, let's move on to her first main body paragraph and let's look at why this would not get a high score.

270

Firstly, people not bless is because of hectic lifestyle.

271

People have a more busier life than in the past.

272

So she started off with a main idea, which is hectic lifestyle, and then said people have a more busier life than in past.

273

Let's ignore the grammar and vocabulary mistakes for now.

274

But basically this isn't an explanation.

275

It's basically just repeating the same thing again.

276

Secondly is the fast -paced life which many adherents are subject to causing a myriad problems.

277

So this seems like it's a second idea because she's put secondly in here.

278

But it's really the same idea as the last one fast -paced lifestyle and this causes problems.

279

Thirdly, for example, my mother used to sleep nine hours a night and she was a housewife.

280

I snooze only six hours and I am a busy doctor.

281

So thirdly, that's showing that like there's a third idea, but this is an example.

282

So it's difficult to understand what she is doing and where she's going because the discourse markers don't really help.

283

And then in conclusion, I've no idea why you would put a conclusion at the end of a main body paragraph.

284

You put your conclusion at the end of the essay, not at the end of the main body paragraph.

285

So when I asked her about this, first of all, I said, why are you adding in?

286

So much strange vocabulary.

287

So myriad and adherence and stuff like that.

288

She said, well, and humongous.

289

And she said, well, I looked at a YouTube video

290

and this girl told me that if I memorize these five or 10 words and put them into my essay, I would get a high score.

291

It's like, okay, can you see the problem with that?

292

Because you're not actually answering the question.

293

You're just focusing on putting in some big words and you're not even using those words effectively.

294

Some of them are spelt incorrectly, some of them are used incorrectly, some of them the grammar is wrong.

295

That's a big problem.

296

Then I said, why are you putting firstly, secondly, thirdly in conclusion?

297

She said, my old teacher told me to do that.

298

That's, you know, a very famous teacher told me to do that and he's really good and you should do that.

299

It's like, no, because that's encouraging you to put in at least three to four main ideas, not develop any of them

300

and she was like yeah I got confused I tried to put an explanation in here

301

and then an example in here but I got confused between the structure

302

that you taught and the structure

303

that my old teacher taught

304

I said okay let's just focus on one way of doing

305

things let's have a look at her new main body paragraph again not perfect there's some little mistakes in here

306

but we're not looking for perfection you don't need perfection to get a high score should be minimizing mistakes

307

but don't look at this and be like, she made a mistake.

308

But comment below and tell me any mistakes that you can spot and that will help you as well.

309

So people tend to sleep less compared to the past because they are expected to work more.

310

Okay, clear topic sentence.

311

You're telling the examiner, this is what this paragraph is about.

312

This is because the job market is more competitive than ever before

313

and workers have to get more done or they may fall behind

314

or be replaced by someone else explanation and it actually explains

315

that main idea so it's nice and coherent and cohesive this means

316

that people have to get up earlier

317

and do not return home until late in the evening thus

318

cutting into their sleep further explanation of the same point furthermore they do not have time to relax

319

and this disrupts their sleep pattern again they could have connected

320

this a little bit better they seemed a little desperate to put in another discourse marker and we helped or fix that.

321

But again, fine.

322

Can fix it a little bit, but overall very, very good and a dramatic improvement from the last time.

323

For example, she missed out an article there.

324

Recent studies showed that the average employee works 2 .4 hours more than, missed out another article, than the average worker,

325

little mistake there, in the 1970s.

326

So example provides evidence to help support our main view.

327

This is much better than my mom used to sleep more than I did.

328

A personal example, you can use personal examples, but most people, and especially this person,

329

continue to mess them up because they don't really help you provide evidence for the general point.

330

So if an examiner was looking at this, again, we're going to talk about grammar at the end.

331

They would notice the you know, the little grammar mistakes, but overall, the grammar is sound, the vocabulary is sound, not perfect, but it is sound.

332

But let's look at the structure and coherence and cohesion and task achievement.

333

They would read this first sentence and think, I know what this sentence is about.

334

And it links to the main idea in the introduction.

335

They would look at this explanation, okay, understand what they think about the question.

336

And then the example, okay, that provides evidence.

337

Compare that with that.

338

It's like night and day and it doesn't take much to convert a mess like this into something like this.

339

She didn't really need to study that much, she just needed to understand the principles behind this.

340

The principle of I need to make my topic sentences clear, I need to actually explain that main idea,

341

have one main idea in the paragraph and then provide evidence

342

and try and make my grammar and vocabulary as accurate as possible.

343

Let's have a look at our second main body paragraph.

344

There are a plethora of reasons for this predicament.

345

Again, what was she doing there?

346

She was trying to impress the examiner with the word plethora and predicament.

347

Like in the previous one, myriad and all of these words.

348

It's not really impressing anybody if you're not actually doing the most important thing, which is answering the question.

349

Firstly productivity of the workforce will plummet.

350

However, this is something that can be mitigated.

351

Secondly, this could cause health problems for those affected.

352

Finally, a number of my patients have complained of this problem and this was caused by a lack of dose.

353

To recapitulate, reasons are multivaried and profound, which is not surprising considering how widespread this problem is.

354

She just memorized that from another essay and put it in there,

355

which is very, very obvious to an examiner um also she's talking a lot about causes and not about effects so

356

You probably spotted this when I told you about this at the beginning of the lesson.

357

The question is about effects, but she's often talking about causes because she didn't spend the time thinking about the question, planning it out.

358

If you do your thinking, you're not going to make mistakes like this.

359

So we give her a new system to follow the primary effect of this.

360

So not cause, effect.

361

Widespread of this is, so she missed out the word is, widespread chronic fatigue, and spelt fatigue wrong.

362

That is to say large sections of the population do not get the required eight hours

363

and this results in a high percentage of them being too tired to live their lives effectively.

364

So she's making a lot of careless mistakes

365

and we'll look at the at the end of this lesson how she fixed those and how she got over that problem.

366

This could mean that they under perform at work or more irritable with those around them or could even have health problems.

367

For example, the Golden State Warriors basketball team employed a sleep expert and the studied players who sleep for,

368

who slept for more than nine hours a night and compared them with those that only got sick.

369

So she's getting, again, making careless mistakes.

370

Those that slept less had more injuries and actually performed worse on the court.

371

I was like, how did you think of that example?

372

She said, oh, I read a book about sleep.

373

It's like, why didn't you use this in the real test?

374

She said, oh, I was under pressure and I just didn't think about it.

375

And I said, okay, what was the difference?

376

She said, well, because I divided it into thinking, writing and planning, it gave me just more room to think about this

377

and the ideas came a lot more freely and flowed a lot better.

378

And I was able to think of this great example.

379

So the examiner would look at this and they would obviously see

380

that there are quite a few small grammar and vocabulary mistakes

381

and they would mark them down for that

382

but they would look at this

383

and see you know clear topic sentence clear explanation clear example very very good example

384

that helps the reader understand their point of view

385

and answers the question effectively

386

so let's look at some key principles from this you need

387

to fully develop your main ideas stop putting multiple main ideas

388

and not developing any of them in your main body paragraphs

389

do not have multiple main ideas in one paragraph help the

390

reader understand what the paragraph is about by writing clear topic sentences.

391

Help the reader understand your main point by explaining it to them.

392

And support your main idea with evidence by giving an example.

393

Personal examples do not normally provide sufficient evidence.

394

You can use them, but most of the time they're not that good.

395

Use vocabulary as a tool to help you express meaning.

396

Memorizing high -level vocabulary does not help you do that.

397

Showing off your vocabulary and making lots and lots of mistakes does not normally end well.

398

Use vocabulary to help you express meaning.

399

That is the purpose of vocabulary is to help you express your thoughts.

400

So use it for that purpose.

401

Let's have a look at our first conclusion.

402

To sum it all up we live in fast -paced hectic world where drowsing is not prioritization.

403

It is my future prediction that this will continue to be a problem and will even gather pace in the coming century.

404

Okay, why are you putting in new ideas and future predictions?

405

Again, I've seen this somewhere else and I just thought I would do this.

406

So this person was a very, very intelligent woman.

407

She was a doctor, but she wasn't thinking for herself.

408

She was just memorizing stuff and looking what other people were doing rather than actually learning how to write, which is what we taught her.

409

When you switch your perspective from, I just want to look at a bunch of essays

410

and copy a bunch of things to I want to learn how to write an essay

411

then your scores are going to improve dramatically.

412

Our new conclusion in conclusion people are more sleep deprived than in previous generations due to longer working hours

413

and the effect is that many are chronically tired to the point of exhaustion.

414

So summarizing our main points making our position clear on both questions that's what the examiner will be thinking about.

415

Do the points link up with what is discussed in the rest of the essay because what is a conclusion?

416

A conclusion is a summary of the main points.

417

They'll also be thinking about is their position clear throughout the essay.

418

Your position on each question, what you think about each question should be clear throughout the essay.

419

That's what it states in the marking criteria.

420

Some key principles for writing a conclusion.

421

A conclusion should summarize your main points and provide a clear position.

422

Do number one.

423

Just do that.

424

Don't do anything else

425

and you should not have new ideas in your conclusion you shouldn't be adding in you know future predictions

426

and stuff like that you can do that

427

but make sure they're actually related to what you were you wrote about

428

and just avoid doing it in fact because it doesn't actually add anything to your essay.

429

Just keep it simple, follow the basics, follow the fundamentals.

430

So third stage is checking.

431

So you might have noticed that she made a lot of mistakes especially in the third paragraph, the second main body paragraph.

432

So we're going to divide the checking stage into three parts, checklist, grammar and vocabulary.

433

Checklist.

434

So we provided her with a checklist of things to think about at the end of her essay.

435

So because we trained her in a certain way, five to 10 minutes at the beginning, she was doing her thinking.

436

And then five minutes at the end, she was doing her checking.

437

So these are the things that she would be thinking about when looking at her essay.

438

Did I demonstrate that I understood the question? so if you have followed the system that we showed you in this video, that will come inevitably.

439

You will do that inevitably if you spend the time thinking about it,

440

dividing it into general topic and specific topics and thinking about the questions. Are my ideas relevant?

441

Did I structure my answer appropriately?

442

Again, if you use a proven structure, that happens automatically.

443

How is my paragraphing?

444

So did I have a clear introduction, clear main body paragraphs and a clear conclusion?

445

Did I paraphrase effectively?

446

Was my introduction effective?

447

Did I do the right things in my introduction?

448

Did I develop my main ideas, topic sentences, explanations, examples?

449

Did I summarize my main ideas in the conclusion?

450

And was my position clear throughout the essay?

451

You also be thinking about was my grammar accurate and appropriate?

452

And did I display a wide enough range of vocabulary?

453

And was my vocabulary accurate?

454

So let's now look at 10, 11, and 12.

455

But you can see that if you learn this and you learn how to do all these things,

456

you're not going to be going like ticking each of these off in your essay.

457

You've learned them to the point where you look at your essay and you can understand them automatically, whether you've done these things or not.

458

So let's move on to grammar.

459

So you might have noticed that she had one major issue, which was articles.

460

Nearly every sentence had an article mistake in it.

461

And that was a big, big problem.

462

Because the examiner will be looking for error -free sentences.

463

The more error -free sentences you have, generally the better your grammar score is going to be.

464

So if you look at a typical essay, you'll see multiple articles.

465

So if you are struggling with articles, then you're going to have a major issue.

466

But this was her problem.

467

You might be great with articles, but you have a problem with prepositions, or you might have a problem with punctuation, or a problem with tenses,

468

or a problem with verb -subject agreement, or one of the other areas of grammar.

469

But the key thing was, if we fixed this problem for her, we could increase her score dramatically.

470

Because 90 % of her mistakes were article mistakes.

471

So you fix that big mistake, that big problem, then the number of error -free sentences increases dramatically.

472

So we did two things for her.

473

We improved her use of articles and we taught her how to check articles when editing.

474

She also made quite a few just careless mistakes.

475

So what do I mean by careless mistakes?

476

I mean that she knew the grammar, so she made a little tense mistake.

477

She made a mistake with countable, uncountable nouns.

478

But she knew that area of grammar.

479

It wasn't a big problem.

480

It's just she was rushing through everything and she didn't get to check it.

481

So we can fix this.

482

We don't need to, you know, review the whole area of grammar because she made one mistake.

483

We help her fix this by checking her writing three times.

484

After each sentence, read the sentence.

485

Did you make any mistakes?

486

If you did, correct them.

487

At the end of each paragraph, read that paragraph.

488

Any mistakes?

489

Fix them.

490

And then at the end of the essay, read the whole essay any mistakes, fix them.

491

And this dramatically improved her performance in grammar.

492

She went from, you know, making a mistake in nearly every sentence to only making one or two mistakes in the whole essay.

493

Vocabulary.

494

So her vocabulary was really already at a seven or above.

495

The problem was she was using it incorrectly because she was doing two things.

496

She was memorizing lots of high words and you've seen

497

that in her original essay and she was showing off

498

so she was just showing off I know this big word like myriad and plethora

499

and humongous just didn't didn't really fit in the essay at all it didn't really help her answer the question

500

and she was using them incorrectly a lot of the times

501

and we can fix this immediately by changing her mindset changing her mindset from

502

using and showing off high level words to use vocabulary you already have as a tool to express meaning.

503

not to show off.

504

So we looked at our vocabulary and said, your vocabulary is actually pretty good.

505

You're making way too many mistakes, but you're making mistakes because you're pushing too hard,

506

like going to the gym and lifting a weight that's too heavy for you.

507

Lift the weights that you're capable of lifting and you'll get stronger and stronger and perform better.

508

But if you lift a weight that's too heavy, you'll drop it on your head and kill yourself.

509

Same with your essay.

510

If you use vocabulary you don't know how to use, you're going to destroy your chances of getting a high enough mark.

511

So let's check her essay again when it comes to vocabulary, because we had a little bit of a debate,

512

and you're probably looking at her essay and screaming at the screen that there's a big, big mistake in it.

513

If you know that mistake, put the comments and

514

But tell me what you think of her vocabulary before we actually look at this big problem that she thought she had,

515

but she didn't really have.

516

This is her essay.

517

When you look at her original essay, she varied the word sleep over and over and over and over again, but incorrectly.

518

And we'll look at that in a second.

519

So when I gave her feedback, I said I marked all of most of the variations, the synonyms of sleep incorrect.

520

So some of them were informal, some of them just the meaning was wrong, some of them the style was wrong.

521

And she had a bit of a debate or an argument with me and she said, you can't repeat any words.

522

If you repeat words, you'll get a low score.

523

Everybody knows that.

524

All of my teachers told me that.

525

And I said, okay, well, let's have a look at it.

526

So we took her essay.

527

So this is her essay.

528

And we put it in here, which is word counter

529

so you can just copy

530

and paste any document in here 272 words shows your your mistakes

531

and all those things but let's have a look here keyword density alright

532

so she used sleep seven times

533

so she said I can't repeat the word sleep seven times

534

and hope to get a high enough score

535

so I say okay let's take the word sleep and put it into a thesaurus.

536

So let's have a look at all of these.

537

And she said, yeah, what I need to do is just use these words that's going to impress the examiner

538

and we'll be able to get a high score.

539

So I said, okay, let's look at these.

540

Coma.

541

Is coma the same as sleep?

542

No. Dream.

543

Is dream the same as sleep?

544

Not really.

545

Hibernation?

546

No. Slumber?

547

Yes, but it's not really it's a little bit informal trance no catnap no dormancy no

548

so there's very very few words here that you could actually use

549

so she made a big mistake thinking all

550

you have to do is just put in a synonym these are all synonyms of sleep

551

but you can't actually use most of them in an essay

552

so we talked about it a little bit more

553

and she said well

554

if I use sleep many many times I'm gonna get a little score

555

I said okay well let's have a look at this let's think about it

556

so the first time you use sleep fine the second time you use sleep

557

so you're writing your essay what happened and she explained

558

that she thought for a very very long time about how to change the word sleep

559

and she couldn't think of a good way so she guessed

560

and that was snooze which was wrong

561

so I said okay two things have happened here number one

562

you've wasted a lot of time just trying to think of one word

563

and then when you did think of it it was wrong lowering your score

564

which is better is it better just to use the word sleep again

565

and get on with your essay vary your language as much as you can

566

if you can change it change it but

567

if you can't think of a word and if you can't think of a correct word, don't use it.

568

Because in an essay like this about sleep, you have two choices.

569

You can repeat the word sleep or you can try

570

and use one of these words and most of them will be wrong.

571

So it's really up to you.

572

You have to vary your language as much as you can and demonstrate to the examiner that you know how to paraphrase,

573

you know how to use synonyms, but there will be some words that you just have to repeat.

574

And if you disagree with me, tell me the alternative.

575

Tell me what you should do instead.

576

Should you use a bunch of words that don't mean anything

577

or don't mean exactly the same as the word you're trying to replace?

578

Use the wrong words or sit there for 20 minutes trying to think of one word?

579

You should always be trying to improve your vocabulary, but don't sit there for 20 minutes and then use the wrong word.

580

You're going to be in all sorts of trouble.

581

But if we look at the rest of her vocabulary fatigue disrupts their sleep pattern.

582

cutting into their sleep, widespread chronic fatigue.

583

There's some great vocabulary and great collocations in there.

584

And that's my point to her was you've got some great vocabulary, but you're trying too hard to show off.

585

And you also are so afraid of repeating a word that you're scuppering your chances of actually improving.

586

She did make some little, you know, she would be marked down for making those little spelling mistakes.

587

But again, checking your work at the end and fixing those

588

and then planning and writing and then checking is going to alleviate

589

that problem and that's one of the main reasons why she improved even further to a band -aid.

590

So I want to help you out even more in this

591

video to say thank you for being one of our loyal YouTube fans.

592

One thing

593

that many many students have been asking us to do is

594

the ability for me to give them one -on -one feedback on their essays and also create personalized study plans.

595

Now normally this costs a huge amount of money.

596

We offer this on our VIP course.

597

And if you were just to buy those two services, it would be $147.

598

But we're trialing a brand new premium service.

599

What we're gonna do today just for our YouTube viewers is reduce that price by more than 90%.

600

We're doing both the personalized study plans and the one -on -one feedback for just $10.

601

But because I'm giving my time to this, I can only offer it to a very small number of people.

602

So if you go below into the description, click the link.

603

We might have places available, we might not.

604

These places normally go very, very quickly because it is an amazing offer.

605

What you will get is for just $10, I will give you feedback on your essay, tell you everything you need to know,

606

your band scores, everything, and exactly what to do to improve.

607

And I will make you a full IELTS study plan, telling you exactly what to do step -by -step,

608

day -by -day before your test so that you can fully prepare.

609

Normally, this costs more than $147, but today it is just $10.

610

I can't guarantee there will be places available, but if you go and check it out, take one before they are all gone.

611

So now you've learned the complete three -stage strategy, thinking, writing, and checking.

612

But here's what most students still struggle with.

613

They understand the strategy, but they can't see how to apply it to their own essays.

614

And then they make lots of mistakes they don't even realize they're making.

615

The difference between

616

Band 6 .5 and Band 8 and Band 9 essays isn't obvious to you until someone shows you exactly what's wrong.

617

So watch this next, where I'll take a real

618

Band 6 .5 essay from one of our students

619

and transform it step by step into a Band 9 essay right in front of you.

620

Click here to watch.

621

You'll see every single change and exactly why it works.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Same Channel

298

FOR YOU

Recommend Video

420 sentences

How to Get Band 9 in IELTS Writing Task 2

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

671 sentences

The Writing Makeover That Took Her Essay From 6 5 to 8 5

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

IELTS Speaking Part 1 Mock Test | Band 8 Sample Answers (Daily Life & Habits)

267

21 sentences

IELTS Speaking Part 1 Mock Test | Band 8 Sample Answers (Daily Life & Habits)

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

340 sentences

IELTS Energy 215: A Terrific Template for Writing Task 2 on IELTS

IELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students

265 sentences

IELTS TOEFL Writing- Essay ideas (How to build an Idea Bank)

IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep

245 sentences

How This One Simple Method Helped Me Get Band 9 Twice in IELTS Reading

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

52 sentences

IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Difficult Decision You Made in Your Life | Band 7+ Answer

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

219 sentences

The 7 Mistakes Locking Your IELTS Score at a Band 6.0

IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

182 sentences

This Method Took Her From Band 5.0 to 7.5

IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

47 sentences

Cách viết overview trong IELTS writing #hoc_tieng_anh_cung_teu #ieltswriting

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

641 sentences

1 Hour IELTS Listening October Part 3 | Podcast with Test & Transcript 2026 #ib8

IELTS PrepUniversity Students

91 sentences

Which TWO benefits for children of learning to write did both students find surprising?

IELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepUniversity Students

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “The ONLY IELTS Writing Task 2 Strategy You Need”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: essay, mistake, main, sleep, word. This video has 621 sentences and 7754 words to shadow. The speech runs for 42:51. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
essay noun	/ˈɛs.eɪ/	A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
paragraph noun	/ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/	A passage in text that starts on a new line, the first line sometimes being indented, and usually marks a change of topic.
conclusion noun	/kənˈkluːʒən/	The end, finish, close or last part of something.
examiner noun	/əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/	A person who investigates someone or something.
principle noun	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
explanation noun	/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/	The act or process of explaining.
reader noun	/ˈɹi.dɚ/	A person who reads.
fatigue noun	/fəˈtiːɡ/	A weariness caused by exertion; exhaustion.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
lifestyle noun	/ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/	A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.
demonstrate verb	/ˈdɛm.ənˌstɹeɪt/	To show how to use (something).
divide verb	/dɪˈvaɪd/	To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
show off verb		To exhibit the best attributes of something.
miss out verb		To miss an experience or lose an opportunity, etc. that should not be missed.
calm down verb		To become less excited, intense, or angry.
come around verb	/kʌ.məˈɹaʊnd/	To change one's mind, especially to begin to agree or appreciate what one was reluctant to accept at first.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
fall behind verb		To be late (for a regular event)
get on with verb		To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption.
get over verb		To overcome.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

How am I going to have time for planning?
How did you generate ideas?
Are you just, do you just want an argument?
What are you doing in that first sentence?
Why do we write an introduction?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have been asking
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If you repeat words, you'll get
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to sleep
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	You've just found · I've read · we've added

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 161 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, furthermore /ˈfɜː(ɹ).ðə(ɹ)ˌmɔː(ɹ)/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/, plethora /ˈplɛθəɹə/, thirdly /ˈθɚdli/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, prediction /pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/, perfection /pɚˈfɛk.ʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, incorrectly /ˌɪnkəˈɹɛk(t).li/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like essay, vocabulary, topic.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The ONLY IELTS Writing Task 2 Strategy You Need - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

IELTS Speaking Interview - Band 9 Example

What Makes a Band 9 Speaking Answer?

Can You Fix This IELTS Speaking Answer?

This Student Made Band 9 Speaking Look Easy

IELTS Speaking Band 6 vs Band 9 Answer

How Do I Improve My Reading and Listening?

How Do I Get A Band 9 in IELTS Speaking?

This Is What Band 9 IELTS Speaking Actually Sounds Like [+ Free Speaking PDF]

"What is your name?" IELTS Speaking Band 9 Answer

IELTS Speaking Band 5 vs. Band 9 – See the Difference!

STOP Answering IELTS Speaking Questions Like This

The Advanced IELTS Speaking Answers That Get Band 9

IELTS Speaking Test- Perfect Band 9

Band 9.0 IELTS Practice Speaking Exam [+ Free Speaking PDF]

Band 9.0 IELTS Practice Speaking Exam

IELTS Speaking Mock Test - Band 8 [+ Free Speaking PDF]

Shadow This Band 9 IELTS Speaking Test (Word for Word)

IELTS Speaking Test: Perfect Band 9 Score [+ Free Speaking PDF]

IELTS Speaking Exam- Perfect Band 9 [+ Free Speaking PDF]

Who Deserves a Band 9? Watch and Decide

How to Get Band 9 in IELTS Writing Task 2

The Writing Makeover That Took Her Essay From 6 5 to 8 5

IELTS Speaking Part 1 Mock Test | Band 8 Sample Answers (Daily Life & Habits)

IELTS Energy 215: A Terrific Template for Writing Task 2 on IELTS

IELTS TOEFL Writing- Essay ideas (How to build an Idea Bank)

How This One Simple Method Helped Me Get Band 9 Twice in IELTS Reading

IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Difficult Decision You Made in Your Life | Band 7+ Answer

The 7 Mistakes Locking Your IELTS Score at a Band 6.0

This Method Took Her From Band 5.0 to 7.5

Cách viết overview trong IELTS writing #hoc_tieng_anh_cung_teu #ieltswriting

1 Hour IELTS Listening October Part 3 | Podcast with Test & Transcript 2026 #ib8

Which TWO benefits for children of learning to write did both students find surprising?

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?